[3:54] Brian Leahy: "Thanks for joining our liveblog of the Legion and District 9 Comic-Con 2009 Panel. Today's panels are temporarily delayed. We will send updates as information becomes available."
[4:07] Stephen Johnson: "Hi, everybody...Welcome to the live blog for District 9 and The Legion."
[4:07] Stephen Johnson: "The Cast of The Legion has taken the stage, we'er talking Doug Jones (Silver Surfer) Tyrese Gibson and more."
[4:09] Stephen Johnson: "The director summed The Legion up thusly: "It's angels with machine guns." I can totally get behind that! The trailer was interesting...it's a good vs. evil thing, with legions of demons fighting the above-mentioned well-armed seraphim."
[4:11] Stephen Johnson: "Doug Jones says that the angels might look "bad", but Christians shouldn't worry. Basically, the film's world is so fallen, the angels need to be completely bad-ass."
[4:12] Stephen Johnson: "Tyrese Gibson in amazing! He's saying that he's "been out there, all day, slinging comic books!" and he's telling the truth. One of our G4tv.com crews got hold of Tyrese, and he showed off some never-before-seen art to our cameras."
[4:13] Stephen Johnson: "Back to the movie, though: Judging from the work-in-progress clip they showed, it will be the perfect flick for fans of supernatural/spirtually themed action flicks."
[4:15] Stephen Johnson: "Check out the poster for the Legion: http://www.beyondhollywood.com/uploads/2009/07/legion-paul-bettany-comiccon-1.jpg"
[4:15] Poll: Are you excited for The Legion?
Yes: ( 16% )
No: ( 24% )
Maybe... we'll see: ( 60% )
[4:16] Stephen Johnson: "The cast and director are going to take some questions from the fans now."
[4:17] Stephen Johnson: "Fan (awesome bearded guy in an Iron Maiden shirt): "I'm not Christian, but I'm a religion fan... (audience cracks up.)"
[4:18] Stephen Johnson: "Director: It's not a religious picture. It's angels with machine guns. there are elements of The Terminator and other films.... hopefully it's a good, fun rollercoaster ride.""
[4:19] Stephen Johnson: "News flash, from Tyrese Gibons: "Jesus was a black man!" Stop the presses!"
[4:19] Stephen Johnson: "Fan: What is the meaning of the tattoos we see in the posters? A: It comes out in the movie. It all means something."
[4:21] Stephen Johnson: "Fan: Control collars in the movie: Is this supposed to represent that angels are slaves to god and when the collar comes off, is that representative of human free will (!) A: That's pretty close. I call (the collars) "Heavenly Lojack."
[4:22] Stephen Johnson: "Fan: I'm a Christian, and I wanted to ask Doug Jones, whether it's hard to keep a straight face when acting? A: Basically, my face in the movie is a combination of make-up and digitial effects, so it was easy keeping a straight face because I was glued into it."
[4:24] Stephen Johnson: "Fan: To Doug Jones: You have such an extensive history of wearing makeup, what was it like to be "naked." A: The difference is between walking out of your house in a sweater versus walking out of your house in a Speedo. I was wearing sweaters, now I'm wearing a Speedo!"
[4:25] Stephen Johnson: "The panel announces another flick called "Priest!""
[4:26] Stephen Johnson: "Based on a Tokyo Pop comic, Priest is starting production soon. "We'll see you here next year with Priest," promises director Scott Stewart."
[4:27] Stephen Johnson: "Tyrese is on stage, by himself, talking about his comic book, Mayhem. And follow him on twitter at tyrese4real."
[4:28] Stephen Johnson: "BTW: The Legion drops on January 22, at that proverbial theater near you."
[4:28] Stephen Johnson: "Now, the real show: Legion leaves the stage, and it's time for District 9..."
[4:29] Stephen Johnson: "Ralph Garmond from KROQ is taking the stage, and talking about District 9! Yeaahhh!"
[4:30] Stephen Johnson: "Ralph is reading off Peter Jackson's credits... mentioning his bag full of Oscars. Here comes Peter Jackson! The crowd erupts!"
[4:30] Stephen Johnson: "Jackson looks fantastic! Young-looking, skinny, grateful... It's extended applause from the crowd. Peter Jackson is getting the full rock star treatment. "
[4:31] Stephen Johnson: "Jackson says he wants to bottle the geek power and feed it to hollywood executives."
[4:32] Stephen Johnson: "Jackson talks about The Hobbit a bit! Here's the update, in real time: "We're about 3 or 4 weeks away from delivering the first draft of the script to Warener Brothers. It hasn't been greenlit by Warner Brothers. "So if you want to see The Hobbit, drop Warner Brothers a line." "
[4:33] Stephen Johnson: "As far as the casting goes: They're not at a stage yet where there is any casting news at all, according to Jackson. "despite all that you might have read, we haven't offered anyone a role at this stage.""
[4:34] Stephen Johnson: "Jackson talks about how there will be two Hobbit movies, taking events from Lord of the Rings (the book) that had to do with what happened in The Hobbit, and rolling that into the two, epic films."
[4:36] Stephen Johnson: "Jackson is talking about District 9. It's a lot of improvisation in the acting, and the lead hasn't really done a movie before."
[4:37] Stephen Johnson: "Director Neill Blomkamp introduces a 7 minute video for the crowd that "gives the feeling of the film in a montage.""
[4:38] Stephen Johnson: "Ooh. Tech problems! The video freezes after 2 seconds. OOOOps!"
[4:39] Stephen Johnson: "Jackson says the project came out of the development of the Halo movie."
[4:40] Stephen Johnson: "Jackson says he checked out Neil Blomkamp's short films, and that inspired him, basically to hire the guy. "
[4:42] Stephen Johnson: "Halo died "due to studio politics" according to Jackson. "Which is a pretty horrible thing.You've committed to it." There is a lot of Halo movie material no one has ever seen in New Zealand, according to Jackson. Damn, I like to see that material."
[4:42] Stephen Johnson: "Jackson mentions "Alive in Joburg," Blomkamp's short."
[4:44] Stephen Johnson: "The clip is playing"
[4:51] Stephen Johnson: "Holy crap. Okay, I'm pickign my jaw off the floor after seeing that District 9 clip. Of all the movie clips I've seen at this year's Comic-Con, this was, far and away, the most impressive. "
[4:52] Stephen Johnson: "Blomkamp and co. have taken the idea of an alien invasion movie and turned it on its head. It's shot in documentary style, and takes the idea of aliens and puts them in a very real context. Along the way, it touches on race, class, and Man's tragically violent nature."
[4:54] Stephen Johnson: "Plot: (spolier alert!) From the clips, it's a story of a gov't official serving an eviction notice to an alien, and eventually finding a huge cache of weapondry. But it can only work with alien DNA. So the reporter mutates due to the effect of an alien poison and gradually becomes half alien, (or at least able to use their weapons.)"
[4:54] Stephen Johnson: "Of course, the humans mainly care about the weapons the aliens have, the main character is hunted because he's the only one who can work the guns."
[4:56] Stephen Johnson: "As I said before, it's shot mainly like a documentary: news footage, security cameras, etc. And the movie really seems real. It's amazing. Truly. I'm more excited about this movie than any currently upcoming film. I'm gushing here, I realize, but seriously, this movie is going to KILL."
[4:57] Poll: District 9
I'm going to see it opening night: ( 80% )
I'll wait for the video: ( 19% )
No plan to see it: ( 1% )
[4:57] Stephen Johnson: "Questions from the crowd time, people."
[4:59] Stephen Johnson: "Fan (for Peter Jackson): You used to do horror films. Any plans to get back to that genre? Jackson: Yes. Watching Neil make District 9 made me think about getting back to making low-budget movies... it's terrific fun. I have a couple years coming up when... I might find a little low-budget horror movie I could develop."
[5:01] Stephen Johnson: "Fan: Neil, this film looks like a potential masterpiece. Where did you draw inspiration in terms of the aliens? A: The inspiration for the aliens and the science fiction in general has been floating around in my head since I was a kid... the aliens themselves come from, they're insects. They're like an insect hive that has lost its queen. They're drones. Like termites or ants."
[5:03] Stephen Johnson: "Fan: If District 9 is a hit, will the Halo movie be greenlit? A: As far as I know the film rights have gone back to Microsoft. I think they (Microsoft) feel like they've been bitten by the Hollywood system. At the moment we're certainly not involved in any Halo movie and Microsoft is looking at what to do with it. Jackson says he's still interested in a Halo movie, if it could happen."
[5:04] Stephen Johnson: "Blomkamp says: "Right now I want to develop my own ideas, but on a creative level I'd love to do it. It's a case of the politics working themselves out.""
[5:05] Stephen Johnson: "Fan: (For Jackson) What sort of differences do you experience between producing and directing? Which do you like better? A: The answer depends on the project and who you're working with."
[5:07] Stephen Johnson: "Jackson says he didn't want Neil Blomkamp to make Jackson's movie. He wanted Blomkamp to make his own film. Jackson says he tried to keep throwing ideas at Neil to be helpful, but he always let Blomkamp have the final say."
[5:10] Stephen Johnson: "The panel discusses the film's budget: From Jackson's point-of-view, this was a low budget movie. Blomkamp is skilled at making expensive looking movies for very little money. The film comes out on August 14th! Go see it!"
[5:11] Stephen Johnson: "Huge round of applause for Peter Jackson and company, and so the District 9/The Legion panel comes to an end. Up next: Star Wars Celebration! See you then. Thanks for hanging out with me, people!"
Comments
searchingfortruth
Though District 9 looks good I'm really curious about Legion. For too long victorians have held angels in bondage to fat bellies & little bodies unless they were demons. About 15 yrs. ago I read this great book called The Christ Clone Trilogy. Though a corny name the book kept me mesmerized through the entire trilogy with the interplay between the real & spiritual world. Warner bought the rights to a movie then decided not to do it.
There is a wealth of original stuff in the realm of the spiritual interacting with the physical that has never been tapped except with demonic angels. I love the idea of a bad butt angel. I hope this is a sleeper blockbuster. Maybe then Hollywood would quit regurgitating the same junk over & over & expecting us to be impressed enough with special effects to pay for it.
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